THE BEST PREP IS NO PREP?

The lack of side-by-side nitro racing at the NHRA or IHRA events and the inability to make each lane equally competitive so lane choice becomes a non-issue is really quite simple. Do not prep the track for traction. Make sure each lane is clean of debris and oil, with no holes or cracks that will swallow a tire (or car) and let the best tuner make the slippery track work for them. There will be long smoky runs for the fans to watch and cheer about. There will be some very low budget teams that will walk away winners. There will be huge savings by not having to deposit "glue" the length of the track. And the ET and speed "numbers" will once again be secondary to "the race," thus actually slowing the cars down. This last point may bring back Funny Cars that actually look like a car you could buy off a dealer’s showroom as they won’t need the awesome aerodynamics of the current genre. Of course, there could be other types of motors used under these new (or very old) racing conditions than currently mandated.

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On the flip side of this premise, the sanctioning bodies will not be able to guarantee preferred sponsors air time just because they bought perpetual winners. They may have to let unknown racers with unknown or regional sponsors get TV and interview time because they just won the race. All of the effort by the TV crews and the sanctioning bodies to create heroes and name recognition of selected team drivers (or selected sponsor's drivers) may be lost as so many unknown players may end up doing better any given day than the multi-car teams with unlimited budgets.

This sounds like grass roots racing to me. This could be routine giant killer TV until there are no longer any giants to kill. If that happened, would drag racing go away? I don’t think so but, I really don’t know the answer to that.

IMHO it wouldn’t be any worse than what we are sold now.

Thanks.

Tom Pattison
Massachusetts

FINALLY. . .A DIAGNOSIS

Perhaps you and I have OFS (old fart syndrome). At 53 years old, I am tired of seeing Funny Cars that all look the same. So goes Pro Stock. Is it just me, or do most tracks have only one good lane? Does a track beer and burger have to cost $12? Does that guy with the air cannon shooting T-shirts into the grandstands not like me? Why should it take over an hour to get out of the parking lot, even though I left early, before the fuel cars were done? Don't those people standing by the fence see the sign that says no standing? All of these things really bug me; you should see me when I'm not spectating and I bring my race car!!!!!! Fear not, I have found a cure...I look forward to attending many of the nostalgia races that seem to be growing in popularity (NHRA Hot Rod Reunion, Goodguys racing events, even the no name track oldies nights). I know that I grew up during the best days of the sport/hobby. And even though OFS has set in, drag racing will always be my greatest love (next to my wife, of course).

Doug Thompson
Murphy, NC

RUSHING SAFETY

RIGHT ON! They are in such a hurry somtimes that they may compromise safety. I was in the final in Atlanta at almost 11 p.m. on Sunday night in the fog and dew. Because of rain, it was delayed, understandably, but, we had 20 minutes to turn the car around thanks to a pre-stage bulb malfunction delay, and we were so rushed we didn't get everything back together properly. Thankfully we did forget to set the airgap, because in our haste we mis-adjusted a couple valves and broke pushrods on the burnout, and we would have broken many more parts had we run the final.

Karen Benkovich
New Jersey